How to Get Indexed by Google

Let’s face it: without a solid search engine ranking, your website isn’t going to connect with potential clients or customers. This is the major reason that web developers and business owners are obsessed with cracking Google’s SEO algorithms. However, before you can even get to the point where your SEO techniques will make or break your site’s search engine results page (SERP) ranking, you need to get indexed by Google.

Over time, every website that is built will be noticed by Google’s so-called spiders. This has to happen for your site to be indexed and added into Google’s results, but it can often take an exorbitant amount of time. Sadly, each day you lose will hurt your new launch, and this can be a very frustrating and costly experience. Instead of simply giving in and allowing this to happen, there are a few key steps you can take that will signal Google to index your site more quickly.

1. Ask Google to Crawl and Index Your Site

Instead of sitting around waiting for Google to find you, take a couple of minutes to point the search engine giant in the right direction! You can ask Google to crawl or re-crawl any website by using the Fetch as Google Tool. You will need to set up a Webmaster Tools account before you use this function, but that’s something you’ll want to do anyway for more effective performance tracking.

2. Add a Blog to Your Site

Blogging is one of the absolute best things that you can do for your website. Blog pages are indexed much more quickly and frequently than static content pages, and they are also a great SEO resource that can help drive your inbound marketing efforts. Studies have indicated that 81 percent of consumers believe that bloggers are a trustworthy resource, and the presence of a blog also increases traffic by an average of 55 percent. In other words, writing regular blog posts will help you fill several needs at once, including getting Google’s attention for indexing and a higher SERP placement. Additionally, you can get more attention by submitting your blog to several top-rated blog directories.

3. Share Your Link via Social Media

Social signals are an important part of Google’s overall SERP strategy. This makes it imperative to share your new link via social media, but it is wise not to be content to merely utilize your personal profiles. Instead, create social media pages that are dedicated exclusively to your new website. Don’t forget to branch out into a variety of appropriate social media sites, including Pinterest and Instagram. As an added bonus, developing a big following on these sites can help your online reputation, and it will also improve your chances of having a video or photo go viral.

4. Submit Your Sitemap to Google

Many websites don’t use sitemaps, but this is a shame because this one simple resource can improve Google’s indexing speed. For the uninitiated, a sitemap is a listing of each of your website’s URLs, along with information that ranks the importance of each page. Google recommends submitting a sitemap to speed up the indexing process. This isn’t something that is going to impact your SERP ranking, but it will make it possible for consumers to begin finding your site more quickly, and that’s a major component of increasing traffic. If you combine a sitemap with a robots.txt file, which tells Google’s spiders what URLs you don’t want indexed, you will receive optimal results.

5. Create a Structured Content Marketing Strategy

Blogging is often the biggest piece of a company’s content marketing strategy, and there is a good reason for this. However, unless you have a structured strategy to keep you on track, it is very easy to let your content fall by the wayside. This would be a huge mistake because content such as blog posts, white papers, videos and photos help pull in traffic via inbound marketing. Your content marketing strategy can also make it possible to ensure your site is indexed quickly, along with giving your SERP a boost. The key is to publish content that is well-written and will help Google and consumers place you in the right niche.

Steering Clear of SEO and Indexing Mistakes

Now that you have a good idea of some of the most proven methods for helping your site get indexed and achieve a high SERP, it is equally important to make sure that you do not make any mistakes that could completely derail your progress. There are many things that can cause Google to penalize your page with a SERP demotion or even a complete removal, and here are some of the most important guidelines.

· Do Not Keyword Stuff – The days of inserting a list of word or repeating a keyword so many times that it’s in every sentence are long gone. Don’t make this mistake unless you want to be completely buried or even removed from the Google search engine.

· Do Not Ask to be Crawled too Soon – Are you still in the process of building your site? Be aware that publishing incomplete information or asking to be crawled too soon can cause Google’s spiders to index your site in the wrong way. For example, if you are working with a preset template and hit publish before you swap out all of the auto-filled text, your site could be erroneously linked to the wrong keywords and Meta description for weeks or even months.

· Avoid Link Spam – Yes, you need to link to your website as frequently as possible, but only in appropriate venues. This means that you should not put the link to your website within the text of comments you post to other blogs or in message boards.

· Don’t Skip the Meta Data – Many people believe that the practice of using Meta data, including a title and page description, is outdated. Although some search engines do use the text on your actual page instead, Google actually reads the Meta data and will use this to help index and list your site correctly.

Now that you have a better idea of how to get your site indexed, make sure that everything is properly linked together and that your site’s navigation is easy to use. After all, fast indexing and a high SERP ranking will help bring traffic your way, but visitors still need to be able to find what they’re looking for in order for your traffic to convert into sales.